Fiction

August 18, 2011 In Brenda Rickman Vantrease’s Tudor England, life is treacherous for all. Henry VIII is increasingly impatient to marry Anne Boleyn. Thomas More is determined to keep Protestant heresy out of England through imprisonment, torture, and execution, when necessary. And Kate Gough is caught in the middle. In The Heretic’s Wife, now out in paperback, Kate attempts to stay true to her faith and her love, but the times are against her. Brenda Rickman Vantrease talks with Chapter 16 about the tension between religion and government, and the challenge of writing historical fiction in which some of the characters actually lived through history. Vantrease will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville.

August 9, 2011 In his debut novel, The Snow Whale, MTSU creative-writing professor John Minichillo uses Melville’s Moby-Dick as a touchstone for a satirical juxtaposition of the trivialities of cubicle culture with the wilds of Northern Alaska, where men still hunt whales—to consequences both hilarious and unexpectedly moving. Today Minichillo talks with Chapter 16 about the challenges of imagining a traditional whale hunt, finding a venue for unconventional fiction in small-press publishing, and taking on the Great American Whale.